UP reiterates thrust on expressways, power sector

The Uttar Pradesh government has assured industry it would continue to work towards ‘substantial improvement’ in infrastructure all over the state.

The thrust areas have been identified as power, expressways, communications, international airports and social sectors. While, the work on Yamuna Expressway (erstwhile Taj Expressway) is on, the state government has proposed two other mega highway projects viz. Ganga Expressway and Upper Ganga Canal Expressway.

In power sector, the state government is aiming to add another 25,000 Mw capacity by the end of 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17).

Holding out this promise at the annual session of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here last night, UP chief secretary Atul Kumar Gupta solicited more investment across sectors, while emphasising necessary support to industry.

The session titled ‘Enhancing UP’s Competitiveness’ witnessed top state bureaucrats and industry representatives mulling over strategies to attract more investment in Uttar Pradesh, promote ‘Brand UP’, overcome infrastructure bottlenecks and prepare trained manpower. On the occasion, CII also released its 10 point agenda for the development of the state culled after brainstorming amongst large number of stakeholders.

Outgoing CII UP state council chairman Jayant Krishna suggested UP to increase in its Human Development Index (HDI), healthcare and education sectors by bringing transformation in service delivery systems.

“UP should launch mass skill development programmes for training of 100 million people by 2022, mostly at the grassroots to ensure that UP reaps rich demographic dividend,” he added.

CII suggested amendment to the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act to reinforce UP’s leadership in agriculture and agro-processing sectors and taking steps to double farmers income in the next three to five years.

Another suggestion was to enact Industries Facilitation Act giving ‘teeth’ to single window system and reviving monthly apex-level Udyog Bandhu meetings for the resolution of grievances pertaining to industry.

“UP needs to carry out labour reforms and show hunger to solicit investment, especially for large flagship industrial units,” Krishna said while demanding more Special Economic Zones in National Capital Region and Lucknow-Kanpur region and improvement in energy situation. Industry further suggested that Uttar Pradesh should rationalise Value Added Tax rates, phase out ‘zero-sum’ levies like entry tax and brace for Goods and Service Tax regime.

Uttar Pradesh has been advised to aggressively promote ‘Brand UP’ and encourage a robust government-business-citizen relationship to project a pro-industry image.